Like many cities, Zurich celebrates New Year with a big firework display.

Held over the lake, it’s a great way to see in the New Year, particularly if you are lucky enough to be able to get onto a roof terrace or balcony with a lake view.

And even if you won’t be here to see it, I hope you enjoy your own New Year celebrations, and have a healthy and prosperous 2009.

Photo: Flickr Toni_V

Post from: The Switzerland Traveler

 The six day bike race is a bit of a tradition.

The history of six day racing seems a bit unclear, and seems to have started either in the UK or the US, but is no mainly popular in mainland Europe.

A number of events are held throughout the year, and one of the oldest is in Zurich.

This year the 52nd Six day race will be held, and it’s as much a social occasion as a sporting event.

Social in the sense of groups of (mainly) men eatring, drinking and smoking cigars – although the latter might be getting a bit less popular.

The original concept was to have one of the riders from a team continually on track – although they could take tiome off to sleep if they had to. Sounds fair enough, until it’s pointed out that a team consists of only two riders.

 So, on average, a rider would be cycling at racing speeds for twelve hours a day, for six days solid.

But clearly cyclists are getting soft and only race in the evenings now.  well, I say evenings, but usually it goes on past midnight, in fact on Saturday they’ll be racing until 03:30 in the morning.

The racing takes place from Thursday 11 December until Tuesday the 16th at the Hallenstadion. 

Tickets are available in various categories, including a late night option for CHF 12, so even in todays economic markets, it’s an affordable pleasure. Unless you opt for a table for all six days at CHF 5200.

Photos: Flickr tetedelacourse

Post from: The Switzerland Traveler

Without encouraging you all to drink like crazy (Remember now: use alcohol responsibly) I figured I really should tell you about the whisky ships.

To me that sounds like a cue for an old film, where a ship carrying a cargo of whisky ran aground on the islands north of Scotland. And all the local villagers were trying to remove the cargo while the customs officers tried to stop them. The film is called Whisky Galore if you’re really curious.

But no, it’s an opportunity to go and taste whisky and cigars, on a boat moored at the end of Bahnhofstrasse in Zürich.

Basically, you turn up, go in, collecting your tasting glass, and then the nice whisky merchants let you try lots of different single malts. Or blends if you prefer, but I don’t do blends.

Neither do I smoke cigars, but apparently they are on offer too. Clearly, I’ll be better off in the chocolate and coffee section.

The whisky ships are open from 27-30 November. Opening times are a bit complicated, but if you work on the theory that it opens at 16:00 you won’t go far wrong. Closing time is 23:00, except on the final day (Sun) when they will sling you off at 20:00.

Entry is CHF 12, although you can pay an extra CHF 5 to get into the chocolate and coffee tasting areas.

www.whiskyship.ch

Photo: Flickr chi-ryu

Post from: The Switzerland Traveler

Max Bill is one of Switzerland’s foremost artists, having left a legacy of many industrial sculptures.

His arrangement of 45 blocks of granite near Paradeplatz in Zurich (above)  has always been a landmark for me, although it was only recently that I discovered the plaque on the nearby wall tellîng me who the artist was.

Then things began to fall into place, as I was living near Max Bill platz (see below) in Oerlikon at the time and had no idea who or what Max Bill was.

Now there is an exhibition of his work in the electricity building near Selnau station in Zurich.

The marketing bods aren’t missing a trick here “… Bill’s energy reached out to the whole world”. Really? How come I hadn’t heard of him then?

The exhibition; Haus Konstruktiv, starts today and runs until 22 March 2009. Admission would appear to be CHF 14.

www.hauskonstruktiv.ch

Photos: Flickr mmechtley El Romano

Post from: The Switzerland Traveler

Fancy a big night out in Zürich?

Then you should know about something called a VIP Clubbing Pass, which gets you access to ten clubs across the city.

Gay clubs, straight clubs, classic clubs, they all seem to be covered. Most of them seem to be down the fashionable (and industrial) Züri-West area, so you should be able to get round a few of them, should the inclination grab you.

The pass is included in some special hotel packages, and costs CHF 104.

http://www.zuerich.com/en/page.cfm/clubbing

Pgoto: Flickr yago1

Post from: The Switzerland Traveler

Obviously I don’t know whether you like cheese or not, but the Swiss are pretty keen on it.

Especially in the winter when you melt it and dip bread in it. Yum.

To be honest I try to eat fondue only once a year, or at least have some form of novelty to make it appetising.

Enter the fondue tram. Travel round Zurich’s tram line for a couple of hours, whilst trying not to spill melted cheese on your trousers (OK, I know my audience is mainly American and I should write “pants” but I just can’t bring myself to do it, sorry).

For a fixed fee of CHF 89 per person you get a welcome drink, a starter and as much fondue as you can eat. Plus coffee. Wine and other drinks are billed separately.

The tram runs from Bellevue and sort of loops round before finishing back there.

There’s no fondue tram on Tuesday or Thursday; and it there are two sittings on other days.

Start times from Bellevue are 17:30 and 20:15. One hour earlier on Sundays.

Reservation necessary: 044 434 44 34 oder fonduetram@vbz.ch.  

Photo: Flickr Aidan McMichael

Post from: The Switzerland Traveler

I’m not one to blow my own trumpet; probably because I don’t have a trumpet.

But I do think it’s fair to tell you that Zurich has just been listed as the city with the highest quality of living.

Not just in Switzerland, or even Europe. The best in the world. And for the seventh year running…

 The Mercer group ranks 215 cities worldwide (Baghdad comes last so they have clearly got something right) against New York as a basis.

London (38) Paris (32) New York (49)  and Tokyo (35) are all rated fairly similarly, while the holders of the Euro 2008 (Austria and Switzerland) take all top three places.

Cities are ranked according to the quality of the following categories:

To be honest, it’s probably a better city to live in than it is to visit, as we don’t have amazing tourist attractions in the city itself, and most people will want to visit the lakes and mountains.

 But it’s still good to know.

Photo: Flickr – sacred destinations

Post from: The Switzerland Traveler

The Rote Fabrik (Literally: Red Factory, not fabric) is an entertaining place down on the Wollishofen side of lake Zurich.

It used to be a factory, and is, er, red. Well it’s made of red bricks, but pretty much all of it is covered in graffiti now.

It operates as a club, a bar and restaurant, and also as a concert venue. Not to mention cinema and theatre. Theater if you prefer.

It’s a politically correct sort of place, and has lots of informational events relating to the mistreatment of minority (or majority) groups in far-flung places. But you don’t have to get involved in that and they really don’t mind. Live and let live. That sort of thing. 

It’s by no means posh, so you don’t want to be wearing clothes that you object to getting grubby.

Last time I went, a friend turned up in a white coat.  Not that sort of white coat, if you’re thinking of those scary people in films that work in psychological institutions – I’m not that far gone yet. No, it was just a nice white coat. What was she thinking?

It’s lovely out the back  in summer, there are plenty of tables outside, and ideal place for watching the boats go by. Schiffliluege – as a colleague in the office calls it.

Food is reasonably priced, a good range of drinks too. Tables are simple, and as I said graffiti everywhere.

So if you fancy feeling like an art student for an hour or two, why not pop down to the red factory?

Photo: Flickr pichenette

Post from: The Switzerland Traveler

You might normally associate Geneva, rather than it’s Germanic sibling, with Motor Shows.

Rightly so, and the exhibition in Feb/March of each year is worth a trip in itself, with new models from major manufacturers often  being announced there.

But Zurich doesn’t like to be left out of anything in Switzerland so we have a car show too.

It’s more of a series of stands by the local dealers, but is still highly entertaining. And useful if you happen to be looking for a new car. Maybe not too likely in the current economic climate but who knows? And at least you can still window-shop, and without having to leave grubby paw-prints on the glass as you can get right up close.

For me, the highlight is the motorsport section of the show, with F1, Rally and Saloon Cars all there.

 Last time I went there was a simulator, worth it just for that. 

The show runs this year from Thurs November 13 until Sunday 16th. If you want to see how politically correct the Swiss are, turn up on Saturday after lunch to witness the Miss Auto Zürich beauty contest.

Entry is CHF 17, The show is open from 10:00 to 21:00; 19:00 on Sunday.

It’s at the Messe in Oerlikon (where else?)  www.auto-zuerich.ch for details.

Photo: Flickr – Kecko

Post from: The Switzerland Traveler

I do not buy CDs at concerts. In fact I don’t even buy CDs.

That all changed last Monday. Little Fish, a two-piece band from Oxford played at The Abart.

There are now two CDs in my flat and I bought them both on Monday night. One studio demo (“it’s rare mate”) and another with three tracks live. I didn’t care that the tracks were probably the same. If there was a possibility of a note, even a breath, being different, I wanted it. I needed it. I even checked iTunes when I got home to see if more is available; it’s not. Downloads on the MySpace page? Nope.

What was so special? It’s hard to distill; maybe the sheer violence that Nev (we are old friends now) puts into his drumming? It certainly made me wonder at the engineering prowess necessary to make a drum kit. How can it stand up to that punishment? How do those clips take that beating and yet remain adjustable? How long can those skins last? Why doesn’t the whole thing just tip up and fall over?

There were times when I watched Nev, times when I watched the drums or even just the pedals, but more often than not I watched JuJu. It doesn’t hurt that she’s young and cute of course, but the sheer anger in the face, the range of tones in the voice are mesmerizing. She’s one of those people that treats a guitar like a whole range of instruments; percussion, bass and guitar all in one. Able to extract delicate notes or violent screams interchangeably.

JuJu is funny too, with a range of put-downs that Frankie Boyle would be proud of.

As a girl/boy two-piece band, comparisons with Jack and Meg are obvious. But they also manage to combine elements of Patti Smith, The Sex Pistols, PJ Harvey and the B52s all rolled into one, but still managing to sound like, er, Little Fish. Catch them at a small venue while you can.

Photos courtesy Little Fish

Post from: The Switzerland Traveler